Tahiti Housing

Project Design

When Tahiti Housing opened in 2007, containing 26 dwellings for low income families in the affluent city of Santa Monica, it set a new standard for creative low-income housing design, with its criss-crossing bridges flying through a bamboo grove, evoking the scene of the forest fight in Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon.

If the iconic 2000 movie was an influence, even more so was LA’s rich and diverse low-income housing legacy. The architect Kevin Daly says the design incorporates important elements from two low-rise workforce housing traditions in Los Angeles. One is the ubiquitous “dingbat” apartment—or “stucco box,” with surface parking facing the street, exterior circulation, and graphic “dingbats” on the facade. The other is the housing inspired by the Siedlung tradition of post-war Europe, guided by geometric regularity, access to natural light and ventilation, dwellings with privacy and shared open space.

In this imaginative fusion, six three-level buildings are connected via ramps and gardens and courtyards which are distributed throughout. The traditional shared lawn has given way to the bamboo grove, creating a cool microclimate, and a dramatic arrival home as tenants criss-cross bridges at two levels, viewing or stopping to chat with neighbors.

More about Tahiti Housing.

More about kdA.

See Gramercy Place Apartments, also designed by kdA.

More about Community Corporation of Santa Monica.

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Reflections

I moved in with my wife and two baby sons (in 2012). Now look at them! They have grown up here and feel they are part of a very strong community. It has helped form them.
– Adolfo, Resident-manager

Top: Tahiti Housing, street facing elevation. Bottom, left: the bridges at Tahiti Housing at dusk; Bottom, right: residents can hang out in the bamboo garden. All photos by Tim Griffith.